Across the night sky over San Venganza, one horizon was ignited by Yamamoto's roaring, white-hot inferno, while another was completely swallowed by Dagon's floating ocean. Thunderous arcs of golden lightning continuously flickered through the clouds above Kyōraku Shunsui.
Only the localized airspace between Ichimaru Gin and Cain was completely devoid of such extravagant elemental phenomena.
It was purely a quiet, razor-sharp collision of polished steel and elongated, blood-red fingernails.
As the two crossed blades once more, the metallic screech rang out, and Cain retreated a short distance through the air, hovering effortlessly. He smiled at Ichimaru Gin, his eyes full of curiosity.
"Hey! Squinty-eyes," Cain called out, flexing his razor-sharp claws. "What exactly is your ability?"
In that brief exchange of martial speed, the two had appeared evenly matched. But at that exact microsecond, a sharp, blinding pain shot directly through Cain's chest.
"Didn't you want to know my ability?" Gin's playful, fox-like voice echoed right beside his ear. "This is it. Shoot 'em dead, Shinsō."
THWIP.
Before Cain could even process the movement, a slender steel blade retracted in a fraction of a millisecond, returning the Zanpakutō in Gin's hand to its compact Wakizashi form.
The night was lush, and the stars twinkled brightly above the desert. Beneath the pale moonlight, the gaping puncture wound in Cain's chest began to knit together rapidly. Even the dark blood that had spilled onto his clothes vanished without leaving a single trace.
"Incredible speed," Cain evaluated, looking down at his restored chest with an amused smile. "Is your ability simply the rapid extension and retraction of the blade? That's not very flashy at all."
"Ara, what are you saying?" Gin replied, his fox-like eyes remaining tightly squinted as his permanent smile widened. "I was always the weakest among these Captains. Of course my Zanpakutō isn't as flashy as theirs."
Even while claiming to be the weakest existence in the Gotei 13 lineup, the expression on Gin's face didn't shift in the slightest. It was entirely impossible to tell whether his self-deprecating words were genuine modesty or a lethal deception.
"Fine, regardless of whether you're the weakest or the strongest," Cain said, his tone dropping its casual edge. "Once I finish you off, that prize will finally be mine."
Cain tilted his head, looking past Gin toward the purified Holy Souls floating inside the massive pillar of spiritual light. His eyes were filled with an ancient, consuming longing.
He held zero interest in claiming the throne of a Lord of Hell. But if he could seize the concentrated, holy power of those souls... he might finally be able to permanently burn away this damned Vampire curse.
FOOM!
The pure white moonlight wrapped around Cain's body as a pair of massive, blood-red bat wings burst violently from his spine.
[Fratricide], [Humanity's First Murderer], [Vampire Progenitor].
Now, in order to shatter his eternal chains, Cain completely discarded his human disguise and revealed his true, demonic form.
"This hideous, rotting appearance..." Cain hissed, his voice echoing with centuries of self-loathing. "I truly find it unbearable. Do you know, God of Death? Everyone praises that old man's infinite mercy. But only I know what a nauseating, hypocritical monster He truly is! Look at this form! This is the 'gift' He bestowed upon me!"
After revealing his true Progenitor form, the dark power surging within Cain's body increased dozens of times over. His torso swelled with demonic muscles, and his hands and feet twisted into elongated, blood-red talons.
Cain looked down at his grotesque hands, showing not a single trace of satisfaction—only pure disgust, hatred, and unyielding rage.
After a brief moment, Cain forced his turbulent emotions back under control. He locked his glowing crimson eyes onto Gin and violently whipped his arm forward.
Three massive, blood-red claw slashes cut through the sky like flying scythes, screaming toward the Captain.
"Die quietly," Cain spat. "Everyone who lays eyes on this form must die!"
CLANG!
As the blood-red energy crashed into him, Ichimaru Gin held Shinsō horizontally to block the impact. Even though he was fully prepared for the strike, the raw kinetic force still dragged his body backward through the air for dozens of meters.
Gin executed a sharp wrist flick, using Shinsō's edge to redirect the claw energy, letting it dissipate into the void.
'Just a casual greeting...' Gin thought, his fox smile tightening as he straightened his bent posture, '...and the physical impact is already this intense?'
The arm holding his hilt trembled slightly from the vibration. Gin raised his head, scanning the empty air ahead.
'Hmm? He vanished?'
"Are you looking for me, squinty-eyes?"
Cain's mocking voice rang out from directly behind Gin's head, accompanied by the whistling roar of displaced air.
SLASH!
The blood-red claws swung violently. Gin's white Captain's haori was shredded instantly, and a spray of fresh blood erupted across his back.
'So fast!'
While Gin marveled internally at the sudden acceleration, the overwhelming physical force behind the strike knocked him straight out of the sky. His body crashed heavily into the desert earth below, kicking up a thick, billowing cloud of dust.
In a neighboring sector of the battlefield, Abaddon, Knight of Hell, turned her head slightly to watch the crash.
"It seems your companion is about to lose his footing," Abaddon mocked, glancing at the bizarre, masked figure hovering opposite her.
"Trash has zero value in existing," Mayuri Kurotsuchi answered flatly. "If he dies down there, it merely proves that his biological capability met its natural limit."
"How cold," Abaddon sneered, her hands tightening around her heavy Bronze Knight Spear. "Isn't he your fellow officer?"
"You talk far too much for a research subject!"
Behind Mayuri Kurotsuchi's black-and-white mask, the single exposed golden eye shone with zero concern for Ichimaru Gin. Instead, it flashed with pure, unadulterated fanaticism, morbid inquiry, and terrifying scientific obsession. The sheer madness gleaming in Mayuri's eye was enough to make even a hardened Knight of Hell feel a sudden, unnatural chill.
Zero killing intent. Zero anger. Zero empathy. He was completely, utterly indifferent to the politics of the war. All Mayuri Kurotsuchi cared about right now was cutting Abaddon open on a lab table to study her demonic anatomy.
"Claw out, Ashisogi Jizō!"
As Mayuri recited the Shikai release command, his Zanpakutō distorted, transforming into a bizarre, golden trident-like blade anchored by a grotesque, brass baby's head at the guard.
"Come... let me examine the precise structure of your internal organs!" Mayuri cackled, lunging forward.
The two engaged in a chaotic, close-quarters melee. The three-pronged blade of Ashisogi Jizō and the heavy Bronze Knight Spear collided continuously in a shower of sparks.
"You are simply an unhinged madman!" Abaddon shouted.
With every heavy weapon clash, Abaddon relied on her superior demonic physical strength to violently repel Mayuri, occasionally tearing shallow wounds across his clothes. But even so, the unholy desire for vivisection shining in Mayuri's eye didn't decrease in the slightest. As the fight dragged on, the madness in his gaze only grew more intense.
Abaddon had never encountered such a human. Fear, weeping, desperate prayers for salvation—those were the eyes she was accustomed to seeing from mortals. No creature had ever dared to look at her as if she were a mere frog waiting for a scalpel.
"Gods? Demons?" Mayuri shouted over the ringing steel, his voice rising in psychotic delight. "What a magnificent, unprecedented research specimen! You don't understand the absolute scientific value your living corpse possesses!"
"Madman! Absolute madman!!"
Unnerved by the shouting, Abaddon's tactical movements imperceptibly slowed down by a fraction of a second.
Seeing the split-second opening, Mayuri's golden eye flared.
STAB!
Ashisogi Jizō thrust forward with terrifying precision, the golden central prong piercing cleanly into Abaddon's shoulder.
A manic grin spread across Mayuri's face beneath his mask.
"This superficial damage..." Abaddon snarled, her spear raising to counterattack, "...cannot kill a Knight of Hell!"
"I never said I was going to kill you," Mayuri whispered gleefully.
BZZZZ!
Instantly, the golden baby's head on Ashisogi Jizō emitted a high-pitched, screeching sound.
THUD.
Abaddon's heavy spear slipped from her fingers, clattering to the ground. Her entire physical body instantly collapsed into total paralysis, completely unable to move a single muscle from the neck down.
"What... what did you do to me?!" Abaddon gasped, her eyes wide with sudden panic.
Mayuri Kurotsuchi offered no verbal explanation. He held his left hand in a sharp, scalpel-like shape, his elongated, purple-painted fingernails glinting under the moonlight as he stepped closer to her paralyzed form.
"The poison of Ashisogi Jizō severs the brain's neural signals sent to the limbs," Mayuri explained softly, pressing his sharp nail against her throat and slicing cleanly into her skin. "Your body cannot move, but do not worry... your pain receptors remain 100% operational."
.....
.....
.....
Give me powerstones.
Support me and read advance chapters on patreon.com/ImmortalDaoWriter